Agenda Reports Pack (Public) 15/10/2012, 19.00 - Meetings ...

(iii) Due regard is regard that is appropriate in all the circumstances,including the importance of the area of life of people affected by thedecision and such countervailing factors as are relevant to the functionthat the decision maker is performing.(iv) The weight to be given to the countervailing factors is in principle amatter for the authority. However in the event of a legal challenge it isfor the court to determine whether an authority has given “due regard”to the “needs” listed in s149. This will include the court assessing foritself whether in the circumstances appropriate weight has been givenby the authority to those “needs” and not simply deciding whether theauthority’s decision is a rational or reasonable one.(v) The duty to have “due regard” to disability equality is particularlyimportant where the decision will have a direct impact on disabledpeople. The same goes for other protected groups where they will beparticularly and directly affected by a decision.(vi) The PSED does not impose a duty on public authorities to carry outa formal equalities impact assessment in all cases when carrying outtheir functions, but where a significant part of the lives of any protectedgroup will be directly affected by a decision, a formal equalities impactassessment (an EQIA as opposed to an Environmental ImpactAssessment, also known as an EIA) is likely to be required by thecourts as part of the duty to have 'due regard'. The EQIA is attachedand will need to be read and taken into account in reaching a decisionon the recommendations in the report.(vii) The duty to have “due regard” will normally involve consideringwhether taking the particular decision would itself be compatible withthe equality duty i.e. whether it will eliminate discrimination, promoteequality of opportunity and foster good relations. Consideration mustalso be given to whether, if the decision is made to go ahead, it will bepossible to mitigate any adverse impact on any particular protectedgroup, or to take steps to promote equality of opportunity by, forexample, treating a particular affected group more favourably8.4 A full EQIA is attached to this report as an appendix. Here, officershave summarised the positive and negative impacts which have beenidentified in the analysis and the proposed mitigation measures.Housing Strategy8.5 Of the four strategy documents, the Housing Strategy is the overarchingdocument which sets the parameters for the other three ofdocuments, namely the Housing Allocation Scheme, the TenancyStrategy and the Homelessness Strategy. This section highlights thespecific equality impacts arising from the Housing Strategy with moredetail set out in the comments under each of the other three strategyPage 355